


Sunnystiltskin

by TaleasOldasTimeandSpace



Category: Strange Magic - Fandom
Genre: F/M, I have no idea, Potionless - Freeform, Rumplestiltskin AU, Strange Magic week, boggy is put upon, but roland probably had something to do with it, butterfly bog, don't ask me who said dawn could spin straw into gold in the first place, fairy tale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 02:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7782922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaleasOldasTimeandSpace/pseuds/TaleasOldasTimeandSpace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dawn doesn't want to spin straw into gold and marry Bog.  Bog doesn't want Dawn to spin straw into gold and marry him.<br/>Griselda doesn't want Bog to die sad and alone.  Sunny wants to help, and Marianne wants to hit things.  Or people.<br/>Things escalate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunnystiltskin

**Author's Note:**

> For Strange Magic week day one: Fairy Tale AU.

Dawn was not having a good day.  And it wasn’t even her fault.  No matter what Marianne said, things like this just kind of happened.  It wasn’t as if she had any control over her current circumstances, and it certainly wasn’t like she wanted it to happen.

She still wasn’t quite sure how it had happened.

 ‘There’s straw an’ a spinnin’ wheel in here,’ the Bog King said as he opened the door for her. ‘Remember, spin it all by morning, or I’ll rip yer wings off.’

Dawn swallowed.  She wasn’t quite sure if he was joking or not. His craggy face was foreboding and didn’t invite questions. On the other hand, she didn’t actually have wings.  ‘Um, what happens if I succeed?’

His raised eyebrow told her exactly what he thought of her chances, but before he could answer, a short woman with wild red hair poked her head around his elbow.  ‘Why, he’ll marry you, of course!’

Dawn stared at her, only vaguely registering the Bog King’s strangled Mom!  She glanced uncertainly between the wide grin of the dowager queen—and how on earth had such a tiny woman given birth to such a tall son?—and the king’s dark scowl. Before she could say anything—for example, her utter panic at the idea of marriage in general and marriage to the Bog King in particular—he growled and said, ‘Just spin the straw!’ and slammed the door in her face.

She stared at the door in shock, before turning to take in the room.  It was in the very bottom of the castle, a wide cavern carved out of the rock itself.  Spiky, orange lamps hung from the ceiling, casting a dim glow over the room.  And there was straw.

Everywhere.

It lay in gleaming piles around the room, the only clear spaces being where she stood by the door and a narrow path that widened to encompass the spinning wheel in the centre of the room, a small tray of food and water on the floor next to it.  Even if she could spin straw into gold, there was no way she could spin it all by morning.  Or maybe she could.  She wasn’t sure what was considered typical straw to gold ratios.

She snorted, sliding down the door.  As if anything about this was typical.

She took a few minutes to sniffle into her arms.  It wasn’t as if they were going to make a difference in the long run, and she’d had a hard day.  Finally she took a deep, shuddering breath and stood up, brushing herself off and stalking over to the spinning wheel.  ‘Okay, let’s do this.’  She grabbed a fistful of straw, sat down, and cracked her neck like she’d seen the Bog King do.  At least, she tried.  He made it look intimidating.  She just felt like she’d pulled a muscle.

At first she tried to twist the strands together with her fingers, trying to get some kind of thread going.  But the straw was brittle and uncooperative, and she only succeeded in shattering the stalks and sending straw dust up her nose.  A spectacular sneezing fit later, and it was clear that straw was not meant to be spun, and anyone who claimed otherwise was an idiot.  She groaned and banged her head against the spinning wheel. ‘I’m doomed,’ she moaned.

 ‘Perhaps I could be of assistance?’

With a shriek, Dawn whirled and threw straw at the unexpected voice.  It caught him in the face and he fell back, landing in one of the piles of straw and sending it everywhere.  ‘Sorry! I—achoo!—I didn’t meant to—achoo!—scare you!’  Once he’d stopped sneezing, he stood, brushing off his patched overalls and rather impressive hair. 

Dawn blinked.  ‘Who are you?  How did you get in here?  Are you a dwarf?’

 ‘What?  No!  I’m not a dwarf!  I’m an elf. The name’s Sunny.’  He bowed with a flourish.  ‘And I got in here by magic.  Which, between you and me, it looks like you could use.’

 ‘You can magic me out of here?’

 ‘Uh, I was thinking something a little more…gold.’  He pulled a stray piece of straw out of his hair, twirling it between his fingers and holding it up for her to see.  It sparkled. Dawn frowned.  Straw wasn’t supposed to sparkle.  He tossed it to her and she caught it reflexively.

 ‘This…this is gold! You can turn straw into gold?!’

‘Yup!’  He stuck his thumbs in the straps of his overalls and grinned widely.  ‘It’s one of my many talents.’

 ‘Wow!  That’s amazing!’  She clapped her hands and bounced in place.  ‘So you can help me?  You can spin the straw into gold?’

 ‘Yeah.  But,’ he held up a finger, ‘I can’t do it for free. There are rules.  If I’m going to spin for you, you have to give me something in payment.  It doesn’t have to be anything expensive,’ he added, before she could protest that nothing she had would be worth a roomful of gold. ‘It would help if it means something to you, but any jewelry or anything like that you have would work.’  He winked.  ‘Unless you want to promise me your firstborn child.  That would always work, too.’

Dawn blushed.  ‘Uh, how about my necklace for now?’

 ‘That’ll do.’

 

* * *

 

Bog sprawled on his throne, massaging his temples.  How did he get into these situations?  All he wanted to do was run his country, look after his people, and maybe terrify the odd peasant—just so they didn’t get any ideas.

Now somehow he had a dungeon full of gold—which was good for the economy—and a fiancée, which was horrible for him.  How was he supposed to know that distressingly sunshiny girl would actually succeed in spinning straw into gold?!  It wasn’t like that was something that should even be possible!

And it wasn’t as if he was going to have her killed or anything like that when—had—she failed. Sure, he might have implied it, but he was just trying to make an example of her so that he wouldn’t be saddled with any more ridiculous claims in the future.  Now, thanks to his mother’s big mouth, he was somehow engaged to the girl.  Not that she looked any happier about the idea than he did.

Maybe he could run away and live in the woods.  He’d always like the woods.  Quiet.  Gloomy. Peaceful.

The throne room doors slammed open.

 ‘Release my sister, you scaly-backed cockroach!’

He pulled his hands away from his head.  ‘What?’

Standing in the doorway was an irate woman with a sword.  A sword!  How had she gotten that past the guards?  Though really, he supposed he’d asked for it, putting Stuff and Thang in charge of security.

 ‘The almighty Bog King!  Can’t get a girlfriend without kidnapping her and locking her in the dungeon.’  She stalked towards him, waving her sword as if she actually knew how to use it.

 ‘I don’t want a girlfriend.  You want yer sister back?  Yer welcome t’her!’  She let out a banshee shriek and swung the sword at his head.  He barely brought his staff up in time to block it.  He blinked.  There was power behind that swing.

She seemed to realize what he’d said.  ‘Wait, you don’t want to marry Dawn?’

He twisted his staff to dislodge her sword and took a swing of his own.  ‘O’ course not!  All she does is sing an’ flirt with the guards.’  He raised an eyebrow at her and grinned.  ‘At least ye’re not singin’.’ 

 ‘Why did you kidnap her then?’ she demanded as she flipped away from his staff and lunged at him again.

 ‘I had t’make an example o’ her.  What would you do if somebody came up t’you and claimed they could spin straw t’gold?’

 ‘I wouldn’t lock them in the dungeon and then marry them!’

He rolled his eyes.  ‘No, you’d probably just challenge them to a duel.’

 ‘And I’d win!  Just like I’m going to win against you, and then I’ll get my sister back!”  She swung at his head again, and he caught it on his staff.  He grinned down at her.  She glared back.  ‘Had enough?’ she demanded, blowing her short dark hair out of her eyes.  They were rather pretty up close, he realized.  Golden-brown and fierce, like a tiger.

He mimicked her, blowing the hair out of his own eyes.  ‘I could do this all day.’

 ‘Well, so can I!’  The clash of their weapons echoed as they moved around the throne room.  Bog hadn’t had this much fun in years.

She was grinning too, he noted, about the same time he realized that they weren’t so much fighting as they were dancing with weapons.  They were evenly matched and neither were willing to surrender, so they just kept fighting until they could barely lift their weapons.

 ‘Why,’ she panted, ‘are we still fighting, anyway?’

He shrugged, the movement almost making him topple over.  ‘I dunno.  I already told you t’take yer sister.  It was fun, though.’

 ‘Yeah.’  She slowly straightened up and sheathed her sword.  ‘In that case, take me to the dungeon.’

 ‘She’s not in the dungeon!’

 

* * *

 

 

He led her to one of the nicer guestrooms.  As he unlocked the door—rolling his eyes at her raised eyebrow—he could hear Dawn speaking inside.

 ‘Of course I don’t want to marry him! He’s much too grumpy.  He’d be perfect for Marianne, though.  All she cares about is swords and being grouchy and overprotective and—’  He caught his sparring partner’s jaw dropping as the door opened and Dawn saw them.  ‘Marianne!  Hi!’ Dawn rushed out of the room and flung her arms around her sister.

 ‘Dawn!  Are you okay? I’ve come to get you out of here!’ She swung Dawn behind her and glared at Bog suspiciously, as if she expected him to throw her sister over his shoulder and run for the nearest pastor.  Which was insulting, really.  How many times did he have to tell her he didn’t want to marry her sister?

 ‘I’m fine!  Really! You don’t need to worry.  Boggy’s been really nice about this whole thing.’

 ‘Boggy?’

‘Bog!’  He crossed his arms and concentrated on looking menacing.

 ‘Right.  Well, I really enjoyed our fight, but I’ll be taking my sister now.’  She started to edge them down the hallway, but Dawn dug in her heels.

 ‘Marianne, wait!  Sunny and I have worked everything out!’

 ‘Who’s Sunny?’

A short man poked his head out of Dawn’s room and waved.  ‘Hi!’

Bog frowned.  ‘How did you get in there?’

Dawn answered before Sunny could.  ‘That’s not important.  He’s the one who helped me out last night, and we’re going to be married!’

Marianne looked like she’d swallowed a bug.  ‘What.’

 ‘Well, not for a while, obviously.  But someday!  And you and Boggy—’

 ‘Bog!’

 ‘—can get married instead of me, and we can have a double wedding, and it will be so romantic!’ 

Bog and Marianne stared at each other, then at Dawn, then at each other again before taking a giant step in opposite directions.  ‘What?!’

 

* * *

 

From behind the potted plant at the end of the hall, Griselda wiped her eyes. Finally her boy had found love.  Finally she didn’t have to worry about him dying sad and alone.  She snuck out of her hiding place and raced down to the kitchen.  She had a double wedding to plan.

**Author's Note:**

> *casually pokes nose back into Strange Magic fanfiction* Heeeey!
> 
> I was originally going to a Butterfly Bog version of Rumplestiltskin, but I feel like this works better for all concerned.
> 
> I'm not sure if I'm going to hit all of the prompts (mostly because I am incapable of doing dark fantasy) but I do have my eye on the sci-fi AU prompt, flavoured with a minor pairing...
> 
> We'll see what happens.
> 
> Come say hi on [tumblr](https://taleasoldastime-andspace.tumblr.com/)!


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